BIBLE REFERENCE:
“Philip says to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us”. Jesus says to him, “Am I with you all for so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip?— the one having seen Me has seen the Father. How is it you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? I am not speaking the words which I am saying to you from Myself, but the Father abiding in Me is doing His works.” John 14:8-10
ENCOURAGING WORD:
In this world in which we live, there are those that will say, if I can’t see God, then I won’t believe in Him. Well, let me ask this question: How can you believe in such people as George Washington, Abe Lincoln or even Mark Twain to mention a few. You have never seen them, but yet you believe that they lived on earth. Then you may say, they are all representative of our History. Really, prove it to me. The response will be, there are books that were written by Mark Twain and much literature about George Washington and Abe Lincoln. That doesn’t mean anything to me, anybody could have written those stories. Did anybody alive today ever see any one of these three guys not to mention many more. No, but yet they believe in them without seeing them.
Now, I’m’ just being facetious. Of course I believe that these people existed, but the point that I want to make is this. If we can believe in all the people that history teaches us about, why can we not believe in God. There are more documents and books written about Jesus Christ than all the other books in the world. We believe all the teachings of books written about great historians and other important people in our world, but yet we won’t believe in the book that the creator of the Universe wrote, which happens to be the blue print of life. From the beginning of the discovery of America, many people have walked with people that we read about and were eye witnesses of their work. That is why we believe what we read. We trust those that wrote about these people.
Well, with all this being said, I know why people don’t want to believe in God. They don’t want to be held accountable to anyone. If you believe in God, then you are held accountable to Him. Now comes the part that most people want to stay ignorant about. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. So when asked by the disciples, show us the Father, what was Jesus’s response?
“The one having seen Me has seen the Father” All those that knew Jesus and walked with Him, did not know that they were walking with God in the flesh until after His crucifixion. God walked the earth in the flesh, in the personage of Jesus Christ. God physically walked among us.
Just so we understand and know that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all in one, let me once again share this next verse. Isaiah 9:6-7; “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace….”
This verse is clear evidence that Jesus was also the Everlasting Father. If we can’t accept this, then the rest of the Bible will make absolutely no sense. Let me share some Bible verses where Jesus claimed to be God.
We read in; John 10:30; “I and My Father are one.” Nobody else can make such a claim. I can’t say, me and my son are one, because we aren’t.
Here is a verse that I’m sure goes right over everybody’s head. John 8:58; “Jesus said to them, (The Pharisees and Scribes) “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Most people do not have a clue what this is referring too. I don’t believe that there are many Pastors or Priests that even make the connection. At least I have never heard this teaching from any of the denominational churches. Let me explain how important John 8:58 is to understand. We read in the following verses:
Lets start out back in Exodus to get the full meaning of this message.
Exodus 3:10-14; “Come now, therefore, and I will send you (Moses) to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
When Moses asked God what His name was and who it was that was sending him, God said, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Now, let move ahead to a conversation that Jesus had with the Pharisees and Scribes.
John 8:48-59; “Then the Jews answered and said to Jesus, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he shall never taste death.’ Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they (Pharisees and Scribes) took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
If you just read this at face value, you will miss the whole point of this conversation. When Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I AM.” He was claiming to be the voice of the burning bush or in other words, He was claiming to be God the Father. The Pharisees didn’t miss it, that is why they picked up stones to throw at Jesus because in their eyes, it was blasphemy to claim to be God, and it was punishable by death. If Jesus was not God, then He is a liar, and the Bible would have no credibility. If you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is also the Heavenly Father, then don’t expect the Bible to make any sense.
The first few verses in the book of John, tell it all.
John 1: 1-14; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. (John the Baptist) This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light (Jesus Christ) which gives light to every man coming into the world. He (Jesus Christ) was in the world, and the world was made through Him (Jesus Christ), and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, (Jesus Christ) to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
If you take the word “Word” and put “Jesus” in its place, it would read like this. “In the beginning was “Jesus,” and “Jesus” was with God, and “Jesus” was God. He (Jesus) was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
And “Jesus” became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
This may sound like a lot of double talk, and impossible for us to understand. With our finite brains, we don’t have the capacity to understand a lot of scriptures in the Bible. That is why we are saved by grace through faith. If we had to have undisputed truth of everything, there would be no way for us to believe.
John 20:25-29; “The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
So he said to them, “Unless I (Thomas) see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Even Thomas referred to Jesus as God once he believed. In the verse that I just read, it is further evidence that we must believe by faith. Once Thomas sees Jesus, it is then that he believes. In his case, seeing is believing, but notice what Jesus said to Thomas once he put his hands in Jesus's side and seen the scars on His hands. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This is where we stand as a human race. Something to notice, All but one disciple died a martyr’s death, which means they died a torturous death. They all had the privilege of knowing and walking with Jesus personally. See, they didn’t have to believe by faith, they knew Jesus personally. The only disciple that didn’t die a martyrs death was the Apostle John. They tried to kill John by putting him in a pot of some boiling hot substance. God spiritually protected John because He needed John to write the book of Revelation. John was exiled to the Island of Patmos where God spoke to him, the events that would take place in the end days. I think Revelation should be read and understood more than it is today by the mainlined denominational churches, but that is not the case. If God kept John from boiling to death, God must have had something pretty important to say to him. Here is what is sad. God took and personally gave John twenty two chapters in Revelation to prepare us for what would happen in the end days just before Jesus Christ would return to earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom. None of the mainline denominations will ever teach on Revelation for whatever reasons, but what they don’t know is this, they are doing their congregations a huge injustice by omitting what God thought was pretty important. In this world in which we live, everything that God warned us about as far as the end days are concerned, are happing today on an unprecedented scale. All these churches that are omitting about 30% of the Bible are going to be held accountable for a lot of lost souls because they are not equipping those that belong to their church with what God told us we should know.
Just to make one thing clear, we don’t need to understand the end time events to be saved, Jesus already did that for us, but by knowing these things, it will give us an urgency to bring more people to Jesus Christ. Probably about 90% of the Christian body, is unaware of where we are on Gods prophetic calender. Most of these people do not believe that the events in Revelation are going to happen for quite some time if at all. There are many that believe that all the events in Revelation have already happened. They are obviously blind to what Revelation teaches. If they did, then they would know that most of what Revelation teaches couldn't have possibly happened yet and they are deceiving all those that are in their congregation. If you are believing this false doctrine, then you will not be prepared for what is coming. These false teachers are playing Russian Roulette with their salvation, as well as yours.
If you are one of those that are holding back on receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a fool. The Bible is very clear that those that have seen the regathering of Israel back to their homeland in ther end days would see all end time prophecy fulfilled. That event happened on May 14th, 1948. Do the math. Since a generation is clarified as being 70-80 years in our times, I would have to say, it is going to happen very soon. We read this truth in the following Bible verse. Psalm 90:10; "The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away." If you were born on May 14th, 1948, you would be seventy seven years old. Everything that Revelation said would happen in the end days, is on the verge of being fulfilled as we speak.
John 5:15-23; “The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
These verses that we just read are all about Jesus making Him equal to God the Father, because Jesus and the Father are one. When He says: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” The Father and Son are one, you can’t honor one with out the other. The Bible is very clear that when we pray, we should pray in the name of Jesus or your prayers won't be heard. It would seem as if Jesus is speaking of the Father as a higher deity at times, but that is because Jesus is speaking in the "first person singular," which means He is in the flesh at that time, but He is still God the Father. Remember, Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Here are two verses that validate what I just said. Colossians 3:17; “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
John 14:13-14; “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Side note: If you pray in the name of Mary, or anybody other person than Jesus Christ, based on what the scriptures of the Bible teach, I can say with complete truth, your prayers are not being heard. Read the following Bible verse. 1 Timothy 2:5; “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” How can there even be a debate about this?
Let me put this is a way that might help us understand a little better. I happen to be a father and a son. You can’t accept me as a son and deny the part of me that is a father. I can talk to people as a father and son in two different respectives. Jesus speaks often as God when he speaks heavenly Words. Then Jesus will speak as in the flesh when He speaks of earthly things. When Jesus speaks of the Father, He is referring to Himself in a Godly sense. Jesus in the flesh is representing man in the flesh. The Bible says we should transform into the image of Jesus Christ,
2 Corinthians 3:18; “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’
We should walk according to how Jesus walked when He spent thirty three years on earth. He was our example of how we should live our lives once we become born again. We can follow Jesus’s example, but there is no way we can live like the Father who created us. One Deity with two different roles. God is Father of all, Jesus is our Lord and Savior of those that recieve His gift of Grace. God the Father left the perfect environment in heaven to join His creation, so that He could redeem man back to Himself through the personage of Jesus Christ. When we hear Jesus pray to the Father, He is giving us an example of what our prayers should be like.
Romans 12:2; “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The will of God is that we transform into the image of the Son.
Since Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, we read these few verses that explain what took place. Luke 1:26-38; “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
The real identity of Jesus Christ has always been questioned by skeptics. It began with Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, who was afraid to marry her when she revealed that she was with child. Joseph took her as his wife only after the angel confirmed to him that the child she carried was the Son of God. Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of God’s Son which we read in a previous verse. When the angel spoke to Joseph and announced the impending birth of Jesus, he alluded to Isaiah’s prophecy: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’)" This did not mean they were to name the baby Immanuel; it meant that "God with us" was the baby’s identity. Jesus was God coming in the flesh to indwell with man. Jesus Himself understood the speculation about His identity. He asked His disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" The answers varied, as they do today. Then Jesus asked a more pressing question to His diciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter gave the right answer: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" Jesus affirmed the truth of Peter’s answer and promised that, upon that truth, Jesus would build His church. Side note, The church was not built on Peter as the Catholics teach. The church was built on Peters response to Jesus’s question. "You are the Christ; the Son of the living God" Jesus built His church upon that truth. The true nature and identity of Jesus Christ has eternal significance. Every person must answer the question Jesus asked His disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"He gave us the correct answer in many ways. In John 14:9-10, where we read again, Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."
The Bible is clear about the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. We already read in John 1:1-14; Where it says that, although Jesus was "in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Once again, Jesus is fully God and fully man, and the fact of His incarnation is of utmost importance. He lived a human life but did not possess a sin nature as we do. He was tempted but never sinned. Sin entered the world through Adam, and Adam’s sinful nature has been transferred to every baby born into the world, except for Jesus. Because Jesus did not have a human father, He did not inherit a sin nature. He possessed the divine nature from His Heavenly Father. Jesus had to meet all the requirements of a Holy God before He could be an acceptable sacrifice for our sins. He had to fulfill over three hundred prophecies about the Messiah that God, through the prophets, had foretold.
Since the fall of man. The only way to be made right with God has been through the blood of the innocent sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the final, perfect sacrifice that satisfied forever God’s wrath against sin. Hebrews 10:14; “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
His divine nature made Him fit for the work of Redeemer; His human body allowed Him to shed the blood necessary for redemption. No human being with a sin nature could pay such a debt. No one else could meet the requirements to become the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. If Jesus were merely a good man as some claim, then He had a sin nature and was not perfect. In that case, His death and resurrection would have no power to save anyone. Because Jesus was God in the flesh, He alone could pay the debt we owed to God. His victory over death and the grave won the victory for everyone who puts their trust in Him.
So, ask yourself this question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Your eternal fate will be determined by how you answer this question. If the evidence that is clearly written in the Bible doesn’t convince you, then there is no hope for you. So, believe what you will, in the end we will all bow down to Jesus Christ. We will bow down to Jesus as a believer, or we will bow down to Jesus as an unbeliever. Those that bow down that previously rejected Jesus will stand in front of Him at the “White Throne Judgement” where they will be condemned to “The Lake of Burning Fire” for all eternity.
Philippians 2:10-1; “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Those that are believers will be forever in the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ. You will have this choice to make as long as you are alive, but we never know when we will take the last breath here on this earth. Once you take that last breath here on earth, your eternal destination will have been determined. All the signs that God told us to watch for prior to His second coming are all converging at once today. The stage is set. The final act is about to come to fruition.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
May God Bless you and keep you in His will. Submit to His will and then look up, for your redemption draws near.
Amen!
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